Post by glactus on Apr 10, 2009 2:28:11 GMT
To planets deep into the void. The E-ELT
The European Extremely Large Telescope will be the first optical telescope capable of picking out the weak pinpricks of light that are reflected from planets as they orbit stars.
The telltale signatures in the light coming from such planets could also reveal whether there is water on their surfaces, which gases are in their atmospheres, and even if they may harbour life itself.
The 1 billion euro (£700 million) E-ELT will have more mirror glass than all the other telescopes in the world put together.
It will be the first time planets outside our own solar system have been seen using light from their surface. Current telescopes are not powerful enough to detect even giant planets in this way as the light they reflect is overwhelmed by far brighter stars.
Astronomers claim the huge instrument, which will house a mirror the width of five double decker buses placed end to end, will be able to spot rocky Earth-like planets up to 100 million million miles away.
With such high resolution, scientists believe they will be able to see Earth-like planets that orbit stars within a region known as the habitable zone, an area far enough away from the star around which it orbits to not be too hot to support life, but also not to far away and too cold.
There are currently 344 known planets outside our own solar system which have been detected indirectly by looking for changes in light coming from stars as the planets pass in front of them. Almost all are gas giants similar to Jupiter.
The E-ELT, which will gather more than 15 times more light than telescopes currently in operation, will be able to directly see small rocky planets as they orbit their stars.
This will allow astronomers to achieve some of the clearest images of our universe ever achieved from the surface of the planet.
Credits:
Image:This is an ESO image
www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/images/ELT_vlt.jpg
Text: This is part text only. See full text by Richard Gray, science correspondent for Telegraph.co.uk, on:
www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5104408/Worlds-largest-telescope-will-search-heavens-for-habitable-planets-like-Earth.html